Articles for Yemen

Yemeni prisons and detention centers are filled with hundreds of detainees who have no idea when they will be released or even if they will ever be tried. Many of these prisoners were either arrested on suspicion or often with no reason at all, as the Yemeni authorities continue to use loosely defined anti-terrorism laws to arbitrarily detain suspects in the fight against the so-called "War on Terror".

Alkarama launched an urgent appeal today, to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights, in the case of Maamar Al-Abdelli, who was arrested for the second time on 13 July 2009 at a hotel in Aden by agents of Yemeni Intelligence Services.

On 26 January 2009, Sana'a's Specialised State Security Court ruled against Mohamed Qasim Ali Al-Gholi and Amin Al-Naggar - two cases which Alkarama had previously submitted to the UN

Having previously submitted his case as an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders on 20 November 2009, Alkarama has just learned that Yasser Al-Wazir was sentenced on 17 January 2010 to 8 years imprisonment by the Specialized Primary Criminal Court in Sana'a.

At the time

Despite having served six months over and beyond his prison sentence, Abdul Rahman Al-Hossami was not released by Yemeni security services. However, reliable sources recently informed Alkarama that he was in fact finally released on 7 December 2009.

Abdelghani Suleiman is threatened with forced extradition to Pakistan where he risks being subjected to torture. He has been detained by the Political Security services (Al-Amn Al-Siyassi) in Sana'a since 28 May 2008 without legal procedure.

Two separate extrajudicial killings, carried out by agents of the Yemeni security services, took place in July 2008 and July 2009. Despite orders from the Ministry of the Interior for the perpetrators to be arrested and handed over to the Prosecution, no action has been taken in the case of Saleh Al-Wasabi and the culprits remain at large .